Pre-Existence of Souls. 47 preceding part of the scene; the other brain has been asleep, or in an analogous state nearly approaching it. When the attention of both brains is roused to the topic, there is the same vague consciousness that the ideas have passed through the mind before, which takes place on re-perusing the page we had read while thinking on some other subject. The ideas have passed through the mind before; and as there was not sufficient consciousness to fix them in the memory without a renewal, we have no means of knowing the length of time that had elapsed between the faint impression received by the single brain, and the distinct impression received by the double brain. It may seem to have been many years. I have often noticed this in children, and believe they have sometimes been punished for the involuntary error, in the belief that they have been guilty of deliberate falsehood." The strongest example of this delusion I ever recollect in my own person was on the occasion of the funeral of the Princess Charlotte. The circumstances connected with that event formed in every respect a most extraordinary psychological curiosity, and afforded an instructive view of the moral feelings pervading a whole nation, and showing themselves without restraint or disguise. There is, perhaps, no example in history of so intense and so universal a sympathy, for almost every conceivable misfortune to one party is a source of joy, satisfaction, or advantage to another. The event was attended by the strange peculiarity, that it could be a subject of joy or satisfaction to no one. It is difficult to imagine another instance of a calamity by which none could derive any possible benefit; for in the then state of succession to the throne no one was apparently brought a step nearer to it. One mighty all-absorbing grief possessed the whole nation, and was aggravated in each individual by the sympathy of his neighbour, till the whole people became infected with an amiable insanity, and incapable of estimating the real extent of their loss. No one under five-and-thirty or forty years of age can form a conception of the universal paroxysm of grief which then superseded every other feeling. I had obtained permission to be present on the occasion of the funeral, as one of the lord chamberlain's staff. Several disturbed nights previous to that ceremony, and the almost total privation of rest on the night immediately preceding it, had put my mind into a state of hysterical irritability, which was still further increased by grief, and by exhaustion from want of food; for between breakfast and the hour of interment at midnight, such was the confusion in the town of Windsor, that no expenditure of money could procure refreshment. I had been standing four hours, and on taking my place by the side of the coffin, in St. George's chapel, was only prevented from fainting by the interest of the scene. All that our truncated ceremonies could bestow of pomp was there, and the exquisite music produced a sort of hallucination. Suddenly, after the pathetic Miserere of Mozart, the music ceased, and there was an absolute silence. The coffin, placed on a kind of altar covered with black cloth (united to the black cloth which covered the pavement), sank down so slowly through the floor, that it was only in measuring its progress by some brilliant object beyond it that any motion could be perceived. I had fallen into a sort of torpid reverie, when I was recalled to consciousness by a paroxysm of violent grief on the part of the bereaved husband, as his eye suddenly caught the coffin sinking into its black grave, formed by the inverted covering of the altar. In an instant I felt not merely an impression, but a conviction that I had seen the whole scene before on some former occasion, and had heard even the very words addressed to myself by Sir George Nayler. The author thus concludes-Often did I discuss this matter with my talented friend, the late Dr. Gooch, who always took great interest in subjects occupying the debateable region between physics and metaphysics; but we could never devise an explanation satisfactory to either of us. I cannot but think that the theory of two brains affords a sufficient solution of the otherwise inexplicable phenomenon. It is probable that some of the examples of religious mysticism, which we generally set down as imposture, may have their origin in similar hallucinations, and that in the uneducated mind these apparent recollections of past scenes, similar to the present, may give to an enthusiast the idea of inspiration, especially where one brain has a decided tendency to insanity, as is often the case with such persons. Dr. Wigan's theory has been much controverted; but we think there is some probability in the view by Mr. W. L. Nichols, in Notes and Queries, Second Series, No. 55, that the cause is " incongruous action of the double structure of the brain, to which perfect unity of action belongs in a healthy state." some Sir Benjamin Brodie describes Dr. Wigan's mind to have had in it more of ingenuity than of philosophy, and the object of his work to be to prove that each hemisphere of the cerebrum has a separate mind, and that on these occasions the two hemispheres might be considered as conversing with each other. Sir Benjamin does not believe this hypothesis, or, rather, he adds, "I should say that it is not in my nature to believe it. It seems to me that the question as to the oneness and individuality of the mind is very clearly and unanswerably stated by Father Buffier. It is one of those fundamental truths which are inherent in us, and defy all argument; which I can no more help believing than I can help believing in the external world, or even in my own existence.”(Psychological Inquiries, p. 23.) This disclaimer, however, leaves where it was, the explanation of the phenomenon which has been so often attested by reliable authorities in past and present times. Sir Henry Holland repudiates the leading idea of Dr. Wigan's theory; although he assents to the still stranger notion that there is a duality of natures in the individual human being. Combe's phrenological doctrine that "there are two organs for each mental power, one in each hemisphere," may seem to help the species of duality contended for by Dr.Wigan. (Dr. Cromwell.) A curious instance of Duality of Heart is stated to occur in the Elephants, in captivity, when their temper cannot be relied on, and they are subject to occasional fits of stubbornness. Hence a popular belief recorded by Phile, a Greek writer, of the 14th century, who in a poem (from which Sir Emerson Tennent gives extracts in his Natural Transmigration of Souls. 49 History of Ceylon,) to the effect that the elephant has two hearts, by the use of one of which he is used to gentleness, by the other to ferocity and resistance. Upon this, a writer in the National Review observes: "This legend of the two hearts of the elephant is a striking expression of that duality of the physical nature which seems to distinguish tameable from untameable animals. In an animal of the latter class, whether in its wild state or in captivity, the whole bent of its nature is single and unwavering: it may be crushed by outer violence, but it admits of no internal division, and the influence of man finds no place in the permanent nature of the beast. In the tameable animal, on the contrary, there is an original duality which furnishes a foot-hold for the power of man. There is one part of the creature's nature that struggles with the other, and thus strangely mimics the moral nature of man, with its conflicts between the higher and the lower principles in him, and like that moral nature is amenable to the power of rewards and punishments." The writer then instances the dog as exhibiting this quality in the highest degree; but considers that the same thing, in lesser degrees, characterises all animals that are capable of being tamed, and not merely subdued to be held in by present force. Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, the friend of Bishop Ken, and of Dr. Isaac Watts, has left, in allusion to the "Pre-existence of Souls," A HYMN ON HEAVEN. Ye starry mansions, hail! my native skies! TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS, AND SACREDNESS OF ANIMALS. The Egyptians maintained that after death the soul, being immortal, transmigrated into bodies of all kinds of animals, whether birds, beasts, or fishes; and that after the space of three thousand years it again returned to the body which it left, provided that body was preserved from destruction during the fong period of its absence. The Egyptians also held that the gods took refuge in the bodies of animals from the wickedness and violence of men; they therefore regarded such animals as sacred, and accordingly worshipped them as containing the divinities whom they revered. This led to the bestowing on them the honour of embalming, while it explains the reason why the mummies of so many animals are found to this day preserved in their catacombs. They placed particular gods in particular animals thus, Apollo was in the hawk, Mercury in the ibis, Mars in the fish, Diana in the cat, Bacchus in the goat, Hercules in the colt, Vulcan in the ox, &c. These animals, with many others, or parts of them, are accordingly found embalmed with the bodies of the human race in the Egyptian tombs; but they were not all worshipped during the early history of Egypt. E 1 Spiritual Life. SPIRITUAL RECLAMATION. THE progress of souls from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge, is among the more beautiful spectacles of our spiritual life. And, soon or late, this is a consummation which awaits us all. Yet, spiritual reclamation, whether on the large scale or the small, demands concentration of purpose, energy, and intelligence. Would we realise heaven, let us begin now. The paradise of our aspirations has its foundations here, and the capacities of the future are grounded on those of the present life. A twofold cosmos, natural things and spiritual, For whoso separates those two, In arts, in morals, or the social drift, Tears up the bond of nature and brings death. As we love here, we shall love in a degree hereafter, as we feel and think now, so must we in somewise feel and think for ever. The unseen world, with all its momentous transactions, let us be assured, is simple and natural as that in which we dwell. Ascetic horrors and ascetic gloom, travestying and deforming with frightful, yet vain imaginings, the beautiful city of God, are sorry preparatives for heaven. How, indeed, should sourness and formality, convictions on which no ray of imagination or feeling seems to shine, consort with the angelic amenities, the transporting assurances of the life to come. For this, let us be well assured, is not as some inquisition torture-chamber, reformatory hulk, or condemned cell. In the celestial life, as here, so surely as God is light, and truth, and love, goal shall succeed goal, and quest follow quest, for ever. A new iris shall spring up, not to foil past efforts, but to allure us on to new, a constant becoming of which the perfect realisation is never. There, indeed, the greatsouled patriot shall freedom find at last, there each self-denying saint the sanctities which lie folded within the inner life, and of which the perfect home is heaven.-Dr. Mc Cormack's Aspirations of the Inner Life. "EXCELSIOR." This is the motto of the United States of America: it signifies literally "Higher," and may be considered to denote the aspiring character of that nation. "Excelsior" is also the title of a Notions of Angels. 51 sublime poem by Longfellow, whose meaning is thus interpreted by a classic friend: "Longfellow, in my mind, has a feeling in that beautiful poem not unlike the feeling of his psalm of life under every aspect. It is, I take it, an ideo-religion of Longfellow's own fine imagination and truly poetic art, and I read the effusion as his view of the interior career of man. EXCELSIOR, starting from that sublime point of departure wherein the human soul was placed by the Almighty, paulo minus ab angelis,' the individual who wishes to improve himself never finds a halting place on earth. His career is upward, in one sense, whatever it may appear to be. His very degradations are means of increased ennoblement, because of incessant compurgation and purity. And in one respect the human almost surpasses the angelic lot; because the one, being perfect in its kind, does not, perhaps, admit of progress, and the other does indefinitely. The yearning to fulfil this progressive lot engenders a noble discontent, and that discontent is expressed by the word Excelsior. Observe, it is not Excelsius; it is therefore entirely interior; whereas Excelsius would refer to the circumstances, rather than to him who was in them."-Miles Gerald Keon; Things not Generally Known, First Series, page 91. NOTIONS OF ANGELS. The word Angel, (angelos in Greek, malak in Hebrew,) literally signifies "a person sent," or a messenger." Dr. Lee remarks, in his Hebrew Lexicon: "As man is incapable of receiving any communication from God in his abstract and incomprehensible character of deity, if a revelation was to be made to man by any visible personage, it must have been by the intervention of some being fitted to sustain such office;" and such was the person emphatically styled "the Angel of Jehovah," in Exod. xxiii. 20, to whom are ascribed the acts and reverence attributable to none but God himself; for, it is added, v. 21, “ my name (person) is within him." In a lower sense, angel denotes a spiritual being employed in occasional offices; and lastly, men of office, as priests or bishops. The "angel of the congregation," among the Jews, was the chief of the synagogue. Such is the Scriptural usage of a term, which, in common parlance, is now limited to its principal meaning, and denotes only the happy inhabitants of heaven. The apostle of the Gentiles speaks of the angels as "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation," in strict keeping with the import of the term itself. In Mark i. 2, it is applied to John the Baptist. "Behold, I send my messenger (angel) before my face," and the word is the same ("malak") in the corresponding prophecy of Malachi. In Hebrews xii. 22, 24, we read: "Ye have come to an innumerable |